Lebanese Premier Warns of Syria Spillover as Gunfights Flare

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged national unity to insulate the country from “the burning fires all around it,” after gunbattles in his hometown of Tripoli. Photographer: Carsten Koall/AFP/GettyImages

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib
Mikati urged national unity to insulate the country from “the
burning fires all around it,” after gun battles in his hometown
of Tripoli.

Mikati expressed concern over “attempts to involve Lebanon
more and more” in the conflict in Syria, according to his
website. All parties should consider themselves responsible for
the “bloody events in Tripoli” and the “consequences
resulting from killing, destruction and bloodshed that will not
only impact the city but Lebanon as a whole,” he said.

The remarks came a day after seven people were killed and
more than 70 wounded in the northern city of Tripoli in fighting
between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the latest sign that the violence in Syria is spilling
into its neighbor.

The official National News Agency said that a cease-fire
agreement in Tripoli was reached after a meeting of clerics,
lawmakers and leaders of armed groups, and will go into effect
at 5 p.m.

Lebanon’s army urged the country’s leaders to refrain from
“inflaming” the differences among the parties and using the
“tense regional situation to settle internal scores.” Seven
soldiers were injured in yesterday’s clashes, it said in a
statement carried by the official agency.

The deteriorating security situation caused Gulf states to
order their citizens to leave Lebanon last week after kidnapping
threats linked to the conflict in Syria.

The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon warned on Aug. 17 of “an
increased possibility of attacks.”

Assad’s troops clashed with rebels in several provinces
across Syria today, leaving at least 54 people dead, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said by e-mail.